In appealing for more American help in fighting off Sunni Islamic extremists, the Iraqi Ambassador to the U.S. warned of a dire threat to the entire globe.

“What you have in Afghanistan, with one bin Laden – you will have a thousand of them,” Ambassador Lukman Faily told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday.

“That’s the situation in Iraq.”

The Obama Administration is scrambling to stave off the unthinkable: The end of Iraq as we know it, partitioned along sectarian lines with a rump al-Qaeda-like statelet in control of vast parts of the country, as well as Syria.

ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, has seized yet another city, Tal Afar, in the country’s northwest.

The militants have their sights set on Baquba, a mere 60 kilometers from the country’s capital.

“Baghdad would be [the crown jewel] for them,” Faily said, “but we will not let that happen.”

The American government continues to weigh its option for responding to the crisis, even direct talks with Shiite Iran, but President Obama has ruled out sending in American troops. The U.S. military is, however, bolstering its presence in the Persian Gulf.

“What we are saying is we cannot wait until tomorrow. A decision has to be made; it should have been made yesterday,” Faily said.

“We have been saying that we need to strengthen our army with having fighter planes, apache helicopters, and others.”

“The Administration now understands that urgency.”

“We are welcoming discussions,” he said, “but we have to be clear the immediate threat would not allow for a long discussion.”

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, has come under criticism for being ethnically divisive and not running an inclusive government.

Former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi told Amanpour last Thursday that a new government should be formed, of which Maliki could be a member but not a leader.

“These are all nice to have discussions. What we have now in Iraq is an immediate threat.”

“We already have a national unity government. We’ve had it for some time. That’s not the issue.”

“We want to have that discussion. But we’re saying conditioning that discussion is not wise.”

soundoff(48 Responses)

I like Lukman a lot. I think he is a leader and is representing Iraq well in the USA. We need help now, and USA has been chosen, now the USA must expedite the delivery of services and materials in order to slow/ destroy the threat from ISIS.

The Bin Ladens, in Iraq, have been the US because of its invasion and Maliki who did not know what being secular meant. One worries for the innocent who will suffer as they have been doing for more than a decade but who, but these two, are to blame. Hand over Bush, Chenney, Rumsfield, Blair and Maliki to the ISIS and maybe one can call for peace

None of the Muslims in Iraq, of either sect, can truly be called innocents. The people of other religions are few, but they CAN qualify as innocents. WE may regard the wives and children of either Muslim sect as innocents, but the Muslims do NOT. At least they do not recognize innocence in the wives and children of the OTHER sect.

This is a sectarian HOLY WAR. Blatantly so. In Islam, holy war requires the total commitment of every single Muslim. Not all do the fighting, but they all participate in it, as fully as they can.

Your notion of how to resolve this is worse than juvenile. I'd be delighted to see those people you mentioned called to defend themselves for their crimes. But the way you suggest is inane. It will have ZERO effect on the conduct of this holy war.

June 17, 2014 at 7:20 pm |

Tom C

Duh, Iraq. That was always the plan. Why do you think America armed the terrorists?

The CIA and NSA LOVED 9/11, because it boosted their funding and powers. The US military LOVED 9/11, because it boosted their recruiting. The plan was always to have more terrorist attacks, because these frighten the US populace, and get them to surrender more human rights in exchange for safety. The end game is a nuclear weapon detonating in an US city. When that happens, all of America's critics will be silenced, and all its citizens will become screaming patriots.

Take the tinfoil hat off Tom. There's no conspiracy here, it's called incompetence. Morons like you that never finished highschool think everything is a conspiracy because you're so ignorant of reality.

Maybe Tom pulled it too far but face facts Chenney wanted the war so that Haliburton would get the money to rebuild. Right now they cannot account for 25 million given for the rebuilding of Iraq. Afghanistan? Many times that amount.

Not a problem. There's a genius in the White House who has distinguished himself with past foreign policy decisions. The man is a virtual messiah. Women stare and men speak in hushed tones in his sacred presence.

Obama has not hit it out of the ballpark on every issue for sure. But compare him to GW Bush who 'broke everything' and you can see Obama was dealt a losing hand. I do not regret my 2 votes for Obama anywhere near I regret ever having heard the name G W Bush.

No more involvement in Middle East, let them sort it out own their own, no more American blood for Middle East, No more fake bin laden stories, now ISIS is more dangerous than AQ, this rubbish is old and will not be bought again.

Is it really a "phobia" to intensely dislike people whose GOD tells them that YOU deserve to be slaughtered?

I tend to get unreasonable about people who have a death wish for me and don't even know who I am. Or want to.

Because if there is ONE point on which both Sunni and Shi'ites are in full agreement, it is that WE infidels do deserve to be slaughtered. So why should it matter to US which sect prevails? Either way, it's going to be a dragon.

As long as Islam prevails there, it will always be a dragon. Of one stripe or another, both equally vile.

Fanaticism is incurable. No amount of good treatment or reasonable talk will EVER change a single fanatic.

We pretend religion isn't behind all the Islamic violence. That is the worst mistake we have EVER made. If we don't divest ourselves of our political correctness, it will be our own undoing. And by our own stupid choice, too.

Islam is totally dedicated to total global conquest. If you don't understand what that means, I can't help you. Nobody can.

I am sorry, but the threat is not ISIS. The real threat is Islam and the what it stands for. It is just not possible to have an "inclusive" government in a place where one sectarian group does believes that the followers of the other sect should even exist. I think that the hands-off policy is good and let both groups of madmen fight to the finish. Also, one cannot help but feel that in their quest for revenge, the Bush administration and Blair pulled the wool over the world's eyes and removed a dictator who, in his own brutal way, held the place together. The Middle East needs such people and the Western powers will be creating more of a mess in their quest to establish democracy in those countries. All this also increases once respect for the Israelis, who hold their own in the midst of all this carnage.

Sorry, a few typos here – ...where one sectarian group believes that the followers of the other sect should not even exist. And in the last sentence, .....increases one's respect for the Israelis,......

use cluster bombs and carpet bombs and lazer wepons...This is the time to use the worlds most powerful gun which shells out 1 million rounds per minute the metal storm ! Kill the butchers ..show no mercy! Because they kill human being like butchers

this is not a war of powers, this is beyond sanity! it complicates everything. because everybody doesn't care about Syria–they creat butlers instead. u.s failed to distinguished who's on their side. WE SHOULD THINK AND ACT FAST AS WE COULD NOW. there most be someone behind on this rampage,lurking–pls.check everything who's behind all of this madness!

Why USA do not stop Israeli mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza and elswhere in West Bank. Why are these double standards?

I am sure if Americans invade Iraq again, this time will face very heavy death toll among US troop. Now rebels are better armed and they are backed by more than half of Iraqi Sunni people.
America will also have to face more attacks on its territory if rebels decided to do so as revenge for invasion of Iraq. I hope that America will not get involved in this quagmire again.

@khaldunqs. Because America is contolled by the Israeli Media....... Most American's a naive, they believe everything they hear on the news but most smart people know it's total garbage............ 99% of most news stories are hidden Marketing for products or total propangda.......................

If anyone still wonders whether G W Bush's unwarranted attack on Iraq was a 'good idea' or not, the latest developments out of Iraq should put that question to rest. We have made a huge blunder and Obama is dreaming if he thinks we can walk away from it 'unscathed'. We now need to quickly accept that Iran's position has greatly improved, and allow the "Islamic Republic of Iran" some room to maintain order in the 'new Iraq'. This is a bitter pill, but we are left with no good alternatives. Name calling Iran 'state sponsored terrorists' after our actions in Iraq is pure hypocricy

What ISISI let these so called Muslim fight each other and kill each others , what are they fighting for ,unseen god, or some practise which differ from there way of worshiping the same god Allah O Akbar, why do they fight , they want Islam ,Islam is with them , they want there culture to prevail and preserve ,let them do it ,but why kill innocent people ? why violence and disturbance of peace , Jihad is not there fathers property , why should they indulge in to jihad? If these idiots keep fighting then some percentage of population will be decreased, and some other religion like protestant Christian should follow,that would reduce another 50% of the total load on earth.

There is nothing like what is propagated no such nuisance exist It is all the U.S .A created and advertise news ,these American have nothing except arms and violence to spread and sell, market,and U.S Economy survives on loly pop called pentagon and white house, The AMERICAN economy is bleeding and being infected with Aids it is marketing certain lies and false story so as to rob Iraq of the oil and further to raise the price of crude oil, which is what keeps these American economy from bleeding, This is hype created by media and is with an ill intention to steal oil from Iraq and iran.

We finally got what we ordered custom made by intending to deal with controlling and defeating these people obeying like useful idiots the intel reports from our own internal sources, as well as other in the region. No matter what anyone says, it has been proven time and again by our own experience as well as Russia´s, who are indeed great warriors and soldiers as it was proved during WWII, that these faith (Islam) cannot be defeated militarily, only dealt with geo-politically. What we´re dealing with here is ´´Failure to Communicate´´, and we´ve got to quit being the ´´Cool Hand Lukes´´ . How can you defeat an idea or dogma that is The Nation of Islam : only with another idea. Not with armies, or invations, or prolonged campaigns of attrition. it will never end otherwise, and the cost for the intenational community is already to high to continue bearing.

The ambassador seemed to feel a strong need to "remind" us that Iraq is a democracy. Although in name it is a democracy, in practice it is a Shi'ite Islamic State. Shi'ites have been slaughtering Sunnis there ever since they had gained hegemony in Iraq. Sunnis did likewise to them before Saddam was toppled. Both are equally brutal, particularly toward one another.

This is a HOLY WAR. The U.S. already DID control Iraq, and failed utterly to control the sectarian slaughter. Of what use can we be now, when the slaughter has reached the level of true war? And who should we be fighting? The Sunnis of ISIS? Or the Shi'ites who rule Iraq and are staunch Iranian allies? Shall we now "partner" with Iran to defend this Shi'ite government?

Is there ANYTHING we can do, anything at ALL, that can bring peace and stability to Iraq? Didn't we already try that once? What makes us think that trying a second time will do any good at all?

These people are involved in a bloodfeud that is 1400 years old and ongoing. Its nature is purely genocidal.

The only thing we really CAN and should do is to get our own countrymen out ASAP. And MAYBE offer some humanitarian aid. But to which faction? Both? Both of these factions HATE US. They would kill us gladly, regardless of their sect.

Nobody has ANY standing in a holy war. None.

But we keep insisting that Islam has nothing to do with these sectarian slaughterings. By adhering to our political correctness, we are deliberately closing off options. We pretend this is NOT a holy war. But a civil war and a holy war are EXTREMELY DIFFERENT. If we continue pretending that Iraq has a true democracy and hold tight to the political correctness about Islam, we make ourselves totally INCAPABLE of making sound decisions. We'd be condemning ourselves to making nothing but BAD ones.

There is nothing at ALL that we can do that won't end up making things worse over there. And also much worse all around the Islamic world, too. Other Islamic nations have at least SOME standing in this holy war. But not any nation with a secular government. This is going to come down the way the participants involved make it come down.

All we can do is castigate both sects and weep for the suffering they are BOTH causing.

One fake war after another. When will it end? America can't even control its own borders. A nation without a border is a failed state. America might as well dissolve its border with Mexico and become just on big happy family. A few more senseless wars in the Middle East and America will be kaput. It's my opinion the the rank and file American has had enough of this craziness and stupidity. Americans go hungry everyday and there is money for this?

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